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Free Syrian Army troops allied with Turkey overran Syrian Kurds in Afrin on Thursday night as part of a continued Turkish incursion into Syria, where the US’ fight against Daesh now seems like an afterthought.

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump cheered the previous night's sacking of Andrew McCabe, the now former FBI deputy director, on Twitter, calling it a \"great day for democracy\" and for the \"hard working men and women\" of the agency.

The whistleblower at the center of the ‘Cambridge Analytica’ scandal has had his account suspended by Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. We spoke to mc schraefel, Professor of Computer Science and Human Performance at the University of Southampton about the scandal.

Last week, on the one-month anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting that left 17 dead, students across the US walked out of class as part of a protest urging immediate action by lawmakers to enact stricter gun legislation.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Facebook’s security chief Alex Stamos is expected to leave the company for disagreements on the company’s disclosure policy to combat the spread of disinformation, US media reported.

EDINBURGH (Sputnik) - Sputnik UK international news agency, has had its membership with the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce cancelled, and considers the move to be politically motivated, the agency's press service said on Monday.

Wanting to make their job a little easier, researchers at the University of Toronto developed a new artificial intelligence algorithm that helped them identify 6,000 previously unseen craters on Earth's moon.

HMEYMIM (Sputnik) - The Russian Center for Syrian reconciliation said Monday it had received information that terrorists in Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta were preparing a possible provocation involving the use of chemical warfare agents.

The head of US Pacific Command has informed lawmakers that more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft will be needed to monitor the Korean Peninsula in the event that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump reach an accord on denuclearization.

Although the BBC Newsnight team officially announced the cap that made the UK’s labourite Jeremy Corbyn look like Lenin had not been specially edited, the effect of the hilarious, from netizens’ point of view, picture was there all the same, prompting a slew of memes on Twitter.

A group calling themselves the 'Philosoraptors' have released a video appearing to show a giant portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin projected over the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

Via an op-ed in the Sun newspaper, Boris Johnson claimed that Russia’s package of retaliatory diplomatic sanctions against the UK “will only punish ordinary Russians by depriving them of harmless opportunities to learn English and apply for UK visas.” His comments refer to Russia’s closing of the British council and consulate in St. Petersburg.

Over the weekend, video footage surfaced showing a 70-year-old man getting kicked off a Binter Canarias flight for yelling racial slurs at a flight attendant on a flight from Tenerife, in Spain's Canary Islands, to the Spanish island of La Palma.

The US is reportedly continuing its military buildup in Syria. Local online news portal the Euphrates Post has published video evidence showing what appear to be two US Coalition Blackhawk helicopters consolidating the US presence in an oil-rich area in Deir ez-Zor province.

American billionaire George Soros could apparently have had a hand in the recent Slovak crisis, Petr Zantovsky, a lecturer at the University of Economics in Prague, told Sputnik, at the same time expressing doubts regarding the West's potential intentions to kick-start a color revolution in the Central European state.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani firmly condemned on Monday Facebook's poor protection of users' data, saying that it violated the privacy rights of EU citizens, and pledged to conduct a thorough investigation into media reports about Facebook users' personal data misuse.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Investigators believe the same suspect is behind four explosions that went off this month in the city of Austin, Texas, including the most recent one which left two people wounded over the weekend, Police Chief Brian Manley said in a press briefing on Monday.

Vietnam marked 50 years since the My Lai massacre. On March 16, 1968, US troops killed 504 people in Son My, in an incident known as the My Lai Massacre, the worst recorded US war crime in Vietnam. The commemoration ceremony was attended by survivors, their families, and some 60 US Vietnam War veterans.

The freedom of movement has been the most consistent sticking point between London and Brussels, with Britain determined to end it and the EU demanding it to continue in order for close economic ties to be preserved.

Russian presidential candidate Pavel Grudinin has promised YouTuber Yury Dud to shave off his moustache if he doesn't get over 15% of votes in the election. We take a moment to remember some other similar high-profile cases.

Russia's military operation in Syria was aimed at curtailing the threat of terrorism and benefited the international community, Dr. Akbari Jeddi, special representative of the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, told Sputnik, while commenting on the joint March 15 Russo-Iranian conference on countering extremism.

About 40 US senators wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin saying they oppose the creation of Nord Stream 2 and urged the official to help prevent its construction. Sputnik discussed the issue with Francis Perrin, Senior Research Fellow at IRIS, The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, specialist on Energy issues.

In a marathon question-answer conversation with several hundred young people in Rome on Monday, the Catholic Church's Pope Francis attacked prostitution, praying for the forgiveness of all Catholic men who engage in purchasing sex from prostitutes.

GENEVA (Sputnik) - Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has said that he is ready for talks with the central government in Madrid, and believes that his return would be evidence of the normalization of politics and democracy in the country.

If the result of the 2018 Russian election proves anything it is that on the back of incumbent President Vladimir Putin’s landslide victory it is no longer tenable for Western governments to claim that their argument is with the Russian government and not the Russian people.

Project 636.3 Varshavyanka attack subs, nicknamed 'black holes' by the US Navy for their sonar-evading capability, have been in service with the Russian Navy for nearly four years now. Rossiya Segodnya journalist Andrei Stanavov got an exclusive first-hand look inside the Novorossiysk, Project 636.3's lead vessel. Sputnik invites you to come along.

Despite the latest breakthrough in the settlement process on the Korean Peninsula, Kim’s government poses a nuclear threat to Europe, the Federal Intelligence Service revealed during a closed-door meeting with the country’s MPs.

In Sunday’s interview with CBS, just ahead of his visit to Washington, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has elaborated on the country’s employment issues, anti-corruption campaigning and much more, thus heaping praise on the Saudis, but also underscoring the dangers posed by Iran.

A newly-published collection of documents shows that Boris Yeltsin was misled by US officials, who told him that the Partnership for Peace was an alternative to NATO expansion when in reality it was the precursor to it. Despite objections from Moscow, Washington quietly pressed on with expansion plans.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin in phone talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday pointed out at the unsubstantiated nature of accusations of Russia's involvement in the nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the UK, as well as discussed bilateral relations.

India's critical nuclear projects have been left in the lurch due to a severe funding shortage. The dearth of funds with the nuclear power corporation has put it in an embarrassing situation, as it has not been able to repay loans availed from Russia for the ongoing nuclear power plant projects.

It is not unusual for Hindus in India to conduct rituals involving offerings to the holy fire (Mahayagya) in order to please the Gods. However, what is bizarre in this Mahayagya is that a pollutant (smoke) is being released into the air to rid the air of pollutants.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has held a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in Brussels to discuss the situation around poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The US government has started accepting requests to exclude certain products from the new tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on steel and aluminum imports, the Department of Commerce announced in the Federal Register on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, confirmed in a statement on Monday that his company met with Qatar's finance minister in 2017 but insisted that he turned down possible funding to avoid conflicts of interest.

WARSAW (Sputnik) - Poland may expel Russian diplomats in solidarity with the United Kingdom amid the scandal around poisoning of Russian former intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in England, the Polish Gazeta Prawna newspaper reported on Monday.

The threats reportedly demanded money and warned that they were sending in students armed with explosive devices which would be detonated if their demands were not met, or if the schools notified the police.

Vladimir Putin has been re-elected as Russia's President for another term, according to preliminary results. With 98 percent of the votes counted, he's leading by a huge margin and has secured over 76 percent of the votes. Sputnik discussed the election with James George Jatras, former US diplomat and adviser to the US Senate Republican leadership.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have reportedly been involved in secret negotiations on the possibility to put an end to the three year-long war. Speaking to Radio Sputnik, Dr. Stig Hansen, an associate professor of International Relations at the University of Life Sciences in Oslo, assumed that Riyadh is seeking to get out of the Yemeni quagmire.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in the city of San Francisco over the weekend to discuss the upcoming meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the White House said in a press release on Monday.

In late 2017, troops from the Syrian Army and other allied ground forces liberated parts of the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor, effectively reestablishing a land route stretching from Iran to Syria and Lebanon, where the formidable Hezbollah political party and militia is based.

The UK's certainty of Moscow's involvement in Skripal's poisoning has increased after last week's statement by UK Prime Minister Theresa May, claiming that it was \"highly likely\" that Moscow was behind the poisoning of the ex-Russian intelligence officer.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry said Monday it will summon the Russian ambassador in Stockholm on March 20 to demand explanations over Moscow's allegations that the nerve agent allegedly used to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the UK could have originated in Sweden.

Despite Norway consistently ranking at the top of various well-being ratings and maintaining some of the world's highest living standards, half of Norwegians believe the nation's prized welfare system is unsustainable.

The Navy SEAL who is believed to have killed Osama Bin Laden has declared that all the available photos of the body are fake, and has called on the US government to release the real images. In a recent interview Robert O'Neill offered new details about the Abbottabad raid that contradict other first-hand accounts.

Tens of thousands of civilians have already left Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held Damascus suburb, through humanitarian corridors organized by Syria and Russia. At the same time, the country's armed forces are continuing to liberate the area from terrorists.

The poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury earlier this month was quickly blamed on Russia without conclusive evidence, and resulted in the UK subsequently expelling 23 Russian diplomats from the country.

\"Immigrants are not guests,\" a Finnish researcher of jihad has claimed, in a call for a stop to the practice of differential treatment. This, he argued, may help counter radicalization in the long run.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Congress of French overseas collectivity New Caledonia, located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, has fixed a date of the referendum on independence from France for November 4, Nouvelles Caledoniennes newspaper reported on Monday.

KIEV (Sputnik) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday questioned the legitimacy of the presidential election held in Russia the previous day, partly because of voting that took place in Crimea, a region which Kiev considers to be \"occupied territory.\"

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman announced that should Iran develop a nuclear bomb, his country would shortly follow suit, which prompted Iran’s Foreign Ministry to call him \"delusional and naïve.\" Sputnik discussed the controversy with Dr. Foad Izadi, Assistant Professor with the Faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran.

Thousands of mountaineers try to conquer Mount Everest every year; in the process, they leave behind a trail of litter, causing a grave environmental threat to the Himalayan range and countries in the region.

Year after year, scientists open up new possibilities for modern society. Latest scientific developments allow people to save more time and energy, and break free from routine in both the workplace and at home.

MOSCOW, March 19 (Sputnik) - Russia's Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin said Monday that he recognized the victory of incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin in the election, though considers the vote non-compliant with the international standards.

The death of Russian national Nikolai Glushkov, who moved to the UK in 2010 after being convicted of embezzlement and money laundering in Russia, has been reported by his friend on Facebook not long after the poisoning of ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as the recent re-election of Chinese President Xi Jinping, will help both countries promote the continuity of their respective foreign policies as well as enhancement of bilateral cooperation, Chinese experts told Sputnik.

STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) - Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallstrom on Monday called the recent negotiations with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, held in Stockholm last week, \"constructive,\" adding that the talks constituted an \"important political dialogue.\"

The defendant used a diplomatic vehicle, which is exempted from thorough security checks, to transport the weapons through Israel's border with the Gaza Strip and is suspected of being part of a broader Palestinian smuggling ring, according to the Israeli security agency.

According to the released sanctions list, the punitive measures will be imposed on four Syrian individuals: one military official and three scientists, claimed by the European Union to be involved in the chemical weapons development in Syria.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Kremlin's spokesman has unveiled Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans following his re-election; he also spoke about the country's current relations with the United Kingdom in the wake of Skripal's poisoning, which London has blamed on Moscow.

The new economy and energy minister Peter Altmaier made it clear before a meeting between German and US officials in Washington that the EU would take a strong stand against the new steel and aluminum tariffs proposed by US President Donald Trump.

Commenting on the March 18 Russian presidential elections in which incumbent Vladimir Putin gained over 76 percent of votes, Roslyn Fuller, Director of the Dublin-based Solonian Democracy Institute and the author of the book Beasts and Gods: How Democracy Changed Its Meaning and Lost Its Purpose, warned of \"exciting\" times ahead.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena lifted the state of emergency declared on March 6 as fighting between the majority Sinhalese Buddhists and minority Muslims subsided, according to the official notification issued on Sunday.

The observers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) believe that local election commissions at the Russian presidential vote complied with the principles of transparency and openness, Secretary-General of the SCO, Rashid Alimov, said on Monday.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is known for his active pro-immigration stance, as part of which he once urged his compatriots to \"open their hearts\" and welcome more immigrants. His relentless campaign to make Sweden a \"humanitarian superpower,\" however, has provoked a cheeky reply from the Sweden Democrats.

Speaking about the success of Turkey's military operation in Syrian Kurdish-dominated Afrin, the country's deputy Prime Minister announced that Ankara had managed to reduce the significant threat on its border by capturing the city.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian diplomats expelled from the United Kingdom over the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury will depart on board of a special flight out of London on Tuesday, a diplomatic source told Sputnik Monday.

Russians went to the polls on Sunday, reelecting President Vladimir Putin in a landslide. Meanwhile, Western governments and much of their media have attempted to dismiss the significance of the vote. Speaking to Sputnik, investigative journalist Rick Sterling explained what the West's problem seems to be.

WARSAW (Sputnik) - Poland will try to convince Germany to reconsider the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the wake of the nerve agent attack on former Russian intelligence officer Skripal in London, Polish Secretary of State for European Affairs Konrad Szymanski said Monday.

As the ballot counting is coming to an end, world leaders have started sending their congratulations to incumbent president Vladimir Putin, who has been re-elected for a fourth term by a large margin, according to preliminary results.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - EU foreign ministers will not discuss the introduction of new sanctions against Iran during the Monday session of the Foreign Affairs Council, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Monday.

New Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to continue the current pace of policy adjustment by raising rates four times this year in 0.25 percent increments, but some market participants suggest the US central banking authority could speed up its pace of policy normalization.

Earlier in the day, the EU has vehemently condemned a poisoning attack on ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, stressing that the bloc takes the UK assessment of Moscow's possible involvement in it \"extremely seriously.\"

Russians have elected Putin for another six years as the country's President. According to preliminary results, Putin is leading with over 75 percent of the vote, while the election turnout was over 63 percent. Sputnik spoke to Lode Vanoost, a political analyst and former deputy speaker of the Belgian parliament, as Russians took to the polls.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United Kingdom and its mainstream media disapprove of the election process in Russia, claiming that the March 18 presidential election was rigged, despite there being evidence to the contrary, Janice Atkinson, the vice-president of the Europe of Nations and Freedom group in the European Parliament, said.

Amid a heated debate on a labor dispute, Mette Frederiksen incited rage among pro-equality observers by hinting that one Somali-Danish Facebook commenter should spend less time debating and be grateful for being able to live in Denmark to begin with.

Russia's presidential elections have been won by the country’s current president Vladimir Putin by a significant margin, according to preliminary results. Sputnik spoke with German Bundestag legislator Dr. Anton Friesen from the Alternative for Germany party about what impact the outcome will have on Russian-German relations.

TOKYO (Sputnik) - Japanese authorities have asked South Korea for assistance in organizing a high-level meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, South Korean media reported Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The efforts of the western countries aimed at \"demonization\" of Russian President Vladimir Putin have backfired and the Russians have rallied behind the politician, Alexey Pushkov, a member of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Results of the presidential election in Russia can be viewed as predetermined only in a sense that the Russian people are happy with the policies persuaded by the current leadership and voted for the continuation of the political course, the observer from Italy Claudio D'Amico told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – More than 870 Russian citizens voted in the 2018 Russian Presidential election at the Consulate General in Houston, Consul General in Houston Alexander Pisarev told Sputnik on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Voting for the next Russian president has finished in the United States, with polling stations closing in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon, on Sunday evening and the vote counting getting underway.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Almost 4,000 Russian citizens voted in the 2018 Russian presidential election at polling stations in Canada, with 1,500 of them in Toronto, the spokesman of the Russian Embassy in Canada's Ottawa, Kirill Kalinin, told Sputnik on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Some 1,400 Russian citizens cast their ballot in the voting in the 2018 presidential election at the Russian Embassy in Washington on the election day, the local election commission said Sunday.

Australian engineer Peter McMahon has claimed that he has determined the location of fragments of Flight MH370, the Malaysian Airlines’ Boeing 777 that went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

On Sunday the Russian presidential race reached its culminating point with most of the nation's 110 million eligible voters casting their ballots for the next president of the world's largest country. Sputnik spoke to Vladimir Golstein, an associate professor of Slavic Studies, on challenges facing Russia economically and politically.

An annual survey published by the Sustainable Development Solutions of the United Nations revealed that Finland is the world’s happiest country, based on factors like life expectancy, social support and corruption.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Voting at the Russian Embassy in Washington is well organized, and there have been no violations, according to an observer from presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak’s campaign speaking to Sputnik on Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian parliament's upper house recorded a number of attempts from other countries to prevent democratic presidential elections and will submit a report listing facts of such attempts by early May, chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said Sunday.